


Trees, Curses, and Other Romantic Things

by Kalcifer



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Apparently I'm updating this again, Background Cordelia/Sumia - Freeform, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Minor Violence, Quests, Severa's feelings of inadequacy, Too many freaking trees, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:59:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7039717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severa set out to make a name for herself by making the forest safe again. A cursed girl was not on her agenda, but she'll help, she guesses. But only because that's what heroes are supposed to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Quest!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this ship may have consumed far too much of my attention, so I had to write something. That it's a swiftly spiraling fairy tale AU is unexpected but not unwelcome.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this nonsense as much as I do.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Determined to step outside of her mothers' shadows, Severa embarks on what she's sure will be an epic quest.

A kingdom full of heroes, and of course Severa had the misfortune to be the daughter of not one but two of the most beloved. Everyone knew how the brave knight Cordelia had undertaken an epic quest to save the prince of Ylisse, only to turn down his hand and wed her partner and fellow knight Sumia. It was the sort of romantic junk that people ate up with a spoon.

Severa was thoroughly fed up with it. So her mother was disgustingly wonderful and talented and perfect, and maybe her mom was charming and loving and could practically speak to animals. That was all very well until you had to live with them. Not only did she have to put up with her mom’s amazing baking and her mother’s perfectly maintained house, she was forced to watch their overwhelmingly adoring relationship. Everywhere she looked, Severa found reminders that she’d never be able to live up to her mothers.

It didn’t help that her sister seemed not to care. Severa would have thought that Cynthia would understand, since she was in the same position, but then she’d gone and become a pegasus knight too. Apparently she saw the stories as a challenge to live up to. It was kind of embarrassing watching her babble on about justice and heroism, but Severa supposed she had to cope somehow.

Unfortunately, that meant Severa had no one to complain to. Which was a shame, because that was at least something that she was good at. She knew better than to bring up her dilemma to her mothers, though. First, she’d die of embarrassment. Then once that was over, they’d probably tell her something about how she was “perfect in her own way” or whatever.

Severa wasn’t a child. She knew that just meant that she was less good.

No, there was only one way to make sure that no one tried to compare her to her mother. She would have to undertake a quest of her own, one that would make her famous in her own right. And to make things even more fun, it would have to be different enough that no one would even think to make a comparison. Not for the first time, Severa cursed her mother’s multi-talented nature.

But no, it was fine. She’d found a sword lying around the house, probably left by one of her mothers’ ridiculous hero friends, and started teaching herself how to use it. It was hard, especially since she had to practice in the confines of her room to keep her parents from seeing, but she thought she was doing pretty well. The sagas could always exaggerate her skill later if they needed to.

When she wasn’t training, she was working on her plan. There were always a lot of opportunities for adventure in Ylisse, but she had to choose the perfect one if she was going to become more famous than her mothers.

It was when she was fifteen that she started hearing rumors about a nearby forest. Apparently, it had recently start eating people or something. It was really messing with the trade in the local villages, which meant that if Severa could figure out what was going on, she was practically guaranteed some sort of song made up about her. All she had to do was find a mysterious evil and defeat it, then make sure no one else tried to take credit. How hard could it be?

She brought up the idea to her parents as casually as possible. She was fully prepared to sneak away if she had to, but of course they had to be supportive about it. They even made sure that she would have enough supplies. Severa really couldn’t blame them for wanting to get rid of her, but they could have been subtler about it.

They agreed that she would set out the day after her sixteenth birthday. Sixteen was an auspicious age for questing, and she certainly wouldn’t say no to a day of people doting on her before she left. Of course, this all but guaranteed that most of her presents would be questing supplies, but that was fine. She could buy herself nice things with the rewards of her heroism. And at least she was guaranteed to use supplies, as opposed to whatever hideous clothing Lucina sent this year.

The party was all right, but she made sure everyone left by the evening. She wanted to be ready to set out bright and early the next morning, and she wasn’t going to lose sleep because Inigo refused to take a hint.

The day of her departure, Severa left with her head held high and her sword strapped to her waist. She didn’t expect any trouble this close to home, but it meant that people would understand that she was on a quest, and would be less likely to bother her. Besides, it would be just pathetic to die before even making it to the forest.

Her family gathered to see her off, waving until she was out of sight.

Severa didn’t look back, because everyone knew that’s what heroes did. She wasn’t even remotely touched by her family’s reaction. Really, it was just typical of them, and she most definitely was not tearing up.

She ended up stopping under the nearest tree the moment she was sure she was out of eyeshot of the house. Strictly to check her map, of course. She had to make sure she knew where she was going.

Once she was confident in her ability to navigate without worrying about her vision blurring, she set out in earnest. Thankfully, the forest wasn’t too far from her house. She was just going to have to walk in a straight line for most of the day, which wasn’t so much difficult as tedious. It did give a retroactive purpose to all the time she’d wasted listening to Cynthia’s ridiculous speeches. Her ability to tune out of her surroundings was finely honed, and she used it to distract herself throughout her trek.

She made it to the forest’s edge just before sunset, having stopped to eat a little earlier in one of the nearby villages. No sense in wasting her rations before she even got to the difficult part of her quest.

The forest itself was remarkably pretty for a death trap. The sun setting over it made it look deceptively peaceful and picturesque, though after hours on the road she was thankful for anything other than flat dirt.

She stared at it for a few minutes before setting about making her camp. She wasn’t enough of an idiot to go into the deadly forest at night, especially not after a long day of traveling. Similarly, she was careful to set up on a hill a few hundred yards away from the forest itself, so she’d be able to see anything that might come out of it.

(Hold on, I had to break to exclaim over a ladybug that somehow made its way in here. It must really be spring.)

Not that she was at all worried. She was Severa, swordmaster and future hero. She had nothing to fear, and certainly no reason to be homesick. No, the only thing she felt was excitement at the glory that awaited her.

The next morning came far too quickly, despite how early she had gone to bed. Severa had never been a morning person even when she had a comfortable bed to sleep on, and waking up on the ground did not help. She ate breakfast and broke camp mechanically, and was still yawning when she entered the forest. Her lingering grogginess meant that she almost didn’t notice the Risen until she walked into them.

Severa had heard tales of the Risen, undead creatures who menaced most of the kingdom and provided half the good fights in any decent saga, no matter what the quest’s original intent was. This was her first time meeting them in person. She was both underwhelmed and terrified. They weren’t riding wolves, which was encouraging, but on the other hand they were still animated corpses trying to kill her.

Her training kicked in while her head was still full of inarticulate screaming. The Risen closest to her lunged, and before she realized it she was in the middle of cutting off its head. This was a messier process than she’d expected.

She paused as her brain caught up with her surroundings. Her first thought, inanely enough, was a complaint about how this was going to ruin her clothes.

A hand grabbed her from behind. She whirled to face it, eyes wide, when she heard a voice yelling from across the clearing. “Blood and thunder!”

The Risen holding her toppled over, presumably from the arrow in its forehead.

“Ugh,” Severa said. “I totally had that, you know.” She dropped out of her combat stance and turned to face the meddler. “In case you somehow can’t tell, I’m here on a quest.”

She squinted, trying to find the person who had spoken. It took a moment, but then she saw a girl with dark grey eyes. She wore a headband with a single feather, and the reason Severa hadn’t noticed her at first was because she could see right through her.

Despite what a certain someone might later say, Severa definitely didn’t scream.


	2. A Ghost?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noire explains why she's so... translucent. Severa is less than impressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things I have learned writing this chapter:
> 
> 1\. I love Noire and Severa  
> 2\. I can't write dialogue for either of them
> 
> At this point I'm pretty sure I'll hate anything I write for them, so I'm just going to post this before I can overthink it. Hopefully the next chapter will be less contrary.

This was just typical. Severa was barely an hour into her quest and she’d already been attacked by Risen and saved by a ghost.

A remarkably nervous looking ghost, now that she was paying attention. The girl was practically shaking. What did a dead girl even have to worry about? She was apparently powerful enough to take down a Risen, and it wasn’t like she could die any more than she already had.

Severa watched the ghost’s face for a moment longer before realizing that neither of them had said anything for at least a minute, and the silence was rapidly growing awkward. “Grind me into dust,” she muttered. She marched over to where the ghost was standing. “So, what, you wanted to kill me yourself? Because let me tell you, I’m not going to make it easy for you.”

The ghost started. “Oh, no, I’m not going to kill you! I just wanted to t-talk to you.” She bit her lip. “Sorry.”

Severa sighed loudly. The ghost seemed to assume it was directed at her, which was good, because it clearly was. “You could have waited, you know. I would have taken care of that thing in no time.” The ghost looked almost disappointed, and Severa found herself rushing to add, “Whatever, it’s fine. So, uh…” She trailed off. What did you say to a ghost who may have saved your life? “What are you doing in the forest? Did you die here or something?”

“No, nothing like that. A-actually, I’m not dead, it’s just a curse my mother put on me…” the not-ghost said. Severa made a face, which caused the other girl to shake her head. “Oh, but that makes it sound bad. It’s just that my mother’s a powerful sorceress, and I’m not. And she has enemies, and one of them decided that attacking her would be too much trouble, and went after me instead. They c-cursed me with some kind of wasting sickness…

“I’ve always been kind of weak, so by the time we noticed anything was wrong, it was too late. My mother couldn’t do anything to lift the curse, so instead she cast a new one on top of it to keep it from getting worse. She tied my life to the forest, so I’m trapped here, but at least I won’t die? And my body is stuck underground somewhere, but I can project an image of myself, kind of. L-like I said, I’m not a magic expert, so I can’t really explain it. But that’s how I’m talking to you now.” She shook her head. “And that’s probably more than you wanted to hear. S-sorry.”

Severa stubbornly refused to let the girl’s story move her. Admittedly, she could kind of sympathize with the struggles of having a powerful parent, but she didn’t have any reason to trust her. It could all be a lie, made up to make Severa let her guard down. Still, there was no reason not to let her think it was working.

“Wow, that sucks.” she said. It came out more sarcastic than she’d intended, but she pushed past it. “Anyway, who are you exactly?”

“Oh. Um, my name is Noire,” Noire said, fidgeting a little. Gawds, she was making Severa nervous just looking at her.

“Great. I’m Severa, and I’m here to make this forest safe again.” Severa paused. “Or safer, anyway, because who knows what dumb things people are going to do. Anyway, I’m kind of on a quest, so as fun as this has been I’m gonna keep moving. Good luck with that curse or whatever.”

“Wait!” Noire yelled. Severa huffed in annoyance. She’d barely gone two steps, there was no cause for yelling. She stopped anyway.

The other girl floated over until they were face to face. “Would you mind if I came with you? I mean, hovering around a forest alone is kind of boring, and I promise I won’t get in your way. You saw the way I killed that Risen!”

Severa resolutely did not flush. She was never going to live that down, was she? “Fine, if you want to follow me I can’t exactly stop you.” She turned and started walking again, determined to make some progress before noon. “I just hope you can keep up!”

She didn’t see Noire’s reaction, but a few moments later she was drifting silently beside Severa. It was a little distracting, but having her there made Severa start planning. As far as she knew, neither of her mothers had had to break a curse. Helping this Noire girl could be another way to surpass them.

As if she knew what Severa was thinking, Noire chose that moment to speak up and ruin Severa’s moment of optimism. “Um, do you know where we’re going?”

“Of course,” Severa said automatically. She had a map, after all. Sure, it was a decade out of date, but that was what happened when no one survived to describe the place. It wasn’t like the trees were going to move in that time.

She walked for another half hour, refusing to acknowledge the tree that she may have passed three times already. She tried to discreetly check her map, but after a minute of fruitlessly trying to locate herself she threw it to the ground. “Okay, so maybe we’re a little lost.”

Noire smiled, though she quickly brought a hand to her face to hide it. “I h-have been trapped in this forest for a while, you know. If you tell me what you’re looking for, I can probably take you there. If you want.”

Severa groaned loudly. Good to know that she was making a fool of herself for no good reason. Still, she wasn’t going to say no. The sooner she could hurry up and fix this, the sooner she could leave. The forest was objectively creepy, and besides, she wanted to go back to someplace with actual baths and fewer bugs.

“Great,” she said, making no attempt at sincerity. “I don’t suppose you know where and how I can make this place less evil?”

“I don’t know about how,” Noire said slowly, “but I might know where. There are a few places in the forest where its energy is more concentrated, and if something went wrong there, it might cause this sort of thing? I think, anyway. We could go check it out, at least.”

Severa nodded. “Sure, let’s do that. At least it’s something to try.” Then, in the interests of feeling like she was doing something, she added, “This better not be a trap. I could absolutely kick your butt if you tried something.”

“I would n-never!” Noire said. She seemed shocked by the very notion. “This is the most fun I’ve had in ages!”

This was her idea of fun? They’d been walking in circles without even saying anything. Severa shook her head. Clearly she would have to take Noire shopping some time.

Wait, no, there were a number of problems with that. For one thing, Noire was kind of trapped, and at this rate Severa was going to grow old and die surrounded by these freaking trees. Besides, she was just here to prove a point.

“Let’s just hurry,” she said.


	3. Another Living Being

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa and Noire have a heartfelt conversation about baked goods, then finally find someone else who isn't even a little dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought I'd abandoned this, I wouldn't blame you, because honestly so did I. But I still really like the concept, so here I am a year later with a slightly better grasp of the characters and determined to finish it.
> 
> I also went back and edited the first two chapters, because thinking about them made me cringe. I'd recommend going back to read them if you want to remember what's going on, but nothing's really changed about them plot-wise. Sumia is more of an entity, though, so they have that going for them.
> 
> Anyway, whether you followed this a year ago and forgot about it or are just now finding it, I hope you enjoy!

Severa had had every intention of ignoring Noire’s presence as much as possible. There was no point in getting distracted by some random girl, no matter how pathetic she seemed. Severa was going to be a hero, she was going to save any number of people. She couldn’t let herself get attached to every single one of them.

But as it turned out, quests were much less glamorous than they’d sounded. She’d kind of thought that once she got into the forest, she’d start encountering Risen and damsels in distress and whatever every five steps. Instead, she was just following Noire as she chose directions apparently at random. Severa couldn’t even tell if they were getting close, because everywhere in this forest looked exactly the same.

They’d been walking for maybe an hour when Severa caved. “What’s it like living in the forest?” she asked. It was probably not the most sensitive question, but to be fair Severa knew maybe two things about Noire. And since bringing up mothers seemed like an all-around bad idea, that left them with the curse.

Noire shrugged. “Better than dying? I-it’s not really that interesting, though. The plants don’t really do much, and with all the people gone it’s kind of lonely.”

“Yeah, about that,” Severa said. “Do you have any idea what’s been killing people?”

“I’m afraid not.” Noire seemed to shrink into herself. “I’m sorry.”

“Of course not, that would be too easy.” Severa blew a hair out of her face idly. “Whatever.”

Noire floated along in silence for a little bit. “Anyway, uh, what’s your life like? Why would you come to a place that you know kills people?”

“I told you, it’s hero business,” Severa said.

“Yeah, but don’t you have a f-family or something? Why do you have to come risk your life like this?” Noire paused, apparently surprised by her own vehemence. “I mean, not that I’m trying to get rid of you or anything, it’s nice having someone else here for a change. It’s just, well, I’m sure you have something b-better you could be doing.”

“Not really,” Severa muttered. She cleared her throat. “Maybe I just thought I wanted to do something more than sit around at home and watch my disgustingly perfect parents going about their disgustingly perfect lives.”

… And that was more than she’d meant to give away. Great, now she sounded like a brat. Whatever, it was fine, she didn’t care if Noire liked her anyway.

“Oh,” Noire said.

Severa blinked. She’d been prepared for contempt, or even for pity, but Noire just sounded sympathetic. She supposed that having a powerful mage for a parent would be just as annoying as having a legendary hero. Which made her feel like even more of a jerk for whining like that.

“Anyway,” she said loudly, “what about before you were cursed? What did you like to do for fun?”

It was the least subtle transition in history, but it seemed to work. Noire bit her lip in thought. “Well, um, I liked baking. I know, it’s silly, especially given my current s-situation. I don’t know, it was just a nice way to relax, and not have to think about things.”

“I get that,” Severa said. “What sorts of things did you generally bake?”

“Oh, you know, whatever recipes I could find. I had this one friend who insisted on trying everything I made, and then he’d give them the best names. They were like poems! He said that my baking inspired him, but I think he was just being nice.”

Severa snorted. “He sounds like a nerd.”

“Well… yeah,” Noire said. She giggled. “But it was still pretty nice of him.”

Despite herself, Severa found that she wanted to hear more about Noire’s baking exploits. It turned out that when she wasn’t making self-deprecating comments, Noire was a pretty good storyteller. Then Severa ended up telling Noire about the time Cynthia had decided to try to make a cake for their parents as an anniversary gift and ended up nearly lighting her pegasus on fire.

Severa was so engrossed in the conversation that when they reached the clearing, she nearly stumbled on the suddenly level ground, having completely lost track of her surroundings. She caught herself and glared at nothing in particular in an effort to regain control.

“So, uh, here we are,” Noire said. “I know you can’t really tell, but most of the forest’s energy passes through here at some point. I’m pretty sure, anyway.”

Severa looked around. There was nothing that stood out as a source of evil, but there was a humanoid figure standing at the other end of the field. She had drawn her sword and was about to charge at it when she realized the person didn’t seem to be dead.

She walked over cautiously. As she got closer, she could tell that she was right about their living status. At the very least, their skin wasn’t purple, which was a good sign.

Up close, he seemed to be a perfectly ordinary man. Other than the fact that his eyes were closed for no apparent reason, anyway. This fact didn’t keep him from waving right at her when she got close. “Hi!” he said. “It’s been awhile since I saw another living human. Anyway, I’m Henry. Nice to meetcha!”

He turned to Noire and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, wow, that’s an impressive curse! Want me to take a look at it? I might be able to break it, and if not it should give me some great ideas.”

Noire squeaked. “Ah, no thank you. I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself.”

Severa crossed her arms. “So what flavor of weirdo are you?” she asked.

“That is, what are you doing out in the middle of the forest?” Noire explained helpfully.

“Oh, I’m just testing out some new hexes.” Henry actually giggled, and Severa cringed on his behalf. Could this guy be any more embarrassing? “This place is just full of dark energy, which means I can do all kinds of fun stuff.”

“What about the Risen?” Noire asked.

“That’s the best part! I don’t have to go anywhere to find test subjects, and no one cares if you kill Risen.” Henry paused. “Well, except maybe other Risen. But then I just curse those guys too, so it’s okay! Much better than humans, anyway. They always get so snippy when you try to curse them.”

“I can see that,” Noire said. Severa transferred her dubious look from Henry to Noire. How could someone be so nervous about a simple conversation and so unconcerned by talk of killing?

“As fun as this has been,” Severa said at last, “I need to figure out what’s been killing the travelers. And if it’s not you, I’d better keep going. No time to waste and all.”

“Nope, I’m afraid not,” Henry said. “Let me know if you find it, though!”

“Right,” Severa said. She rolled her eyes.

“Have fun with your curses,” Noire said.

“You too!” Henry said. “If you change your mind about yours, though, let me know. I think it has an escape clause built in, so breaking it shouldn’t be too hard. Then again, it is pretty cool, so I can see why you’re keeping it.”

“Thanks?”

Severa started walking away before Henry could respond. She didn’t know why no one in this forest seemed to have any social skills, but she didn’t really care as long as she didn’t have to deal with it. She had better things to do.


End file.
